fEaTuRE ] solaR dEcaThloN
landscape is a very “social” art in which
practitioners of this a rt have to deal with a
living media. His De sign I course, which
introduc ed beginning students to the
architect ure of outdoor spac e, incorpor ated
ideas of environmental design and ecological
appreciation, a nd set the stage for the
interdisciplinar y nat ure of the studio work.
curriculum of Engagement
To accomplish this, a key strategy of many
teachers is to use a re al client situation,
rather than a case study, to help students
appreciate the multiple forc e s operating
in any design or planning operation, e ither
encouraging each student to employ a real
situation of their own choosing, or by
providing a client for whom the class a s
a team can work out solutions.
Last year Margie Coffin Brown, a
historical landscape architect, h ad her
st udents cre ate a Cultural Landscape Report
for Rolling R idge, a large property in
Andover MA that wa s de signed by Fletcher
Steel in 1916, and now serves as a retreat
and conference center. The R olling R idge
studio provided an opportunity to learn
the methodolog y of de veloping a cultural
landscape report while studying an intact,
but neglected, Fletcher Steele l andscape.
The student’s work also served as a
catalyst for preservation efforts for this
remarkable l andscape.
Gina Foglia, LEED, AP, partnered
her Design IV Studio students with the
Bay Farm Montessori School in Duxbury.
Overdue for a master plan for their campus,
but unable to expend resources for profes-
sion al time, the He ad of School, Site
Committee, and Board of Trustees all
agreed to engage with the students over
the course of one academic year.
“Gina and her students worked closely
with our entire community,” explained
Kevin Clark, Head of School. “ They visited
our school multiple times, meeting with
students, tea chers, parents , s ta ff and our
Board of Trustee s. Within short order this
group of people came to rea lly understand
our school, our community, our culture
a s well a s the surrounding environment.
Their final products were dead-on correct
for who we are as a school.”
These projects, a c ertificate requirement
which e st ablished from the beginning,
prepare LI students for their capstone
certificate requirement, the Independent
Project. Producing the “IP” over the course
of a year begins with a proposal approved
by Jea n Cavanaugh, Coordinator of IP
development, a long with the student’s chosen
advisor. For many students, the proje ct
involve s a profe ssional commitment to
a client, which may be the board of a
non-profit, municipal official s, or a s chool
committee. Beyond satisfying the require-
ments for earning a certificate, the IP c an
develop into a contract for work, a leadership
role on a town board or commission or a
preser vation initiative, or launch a c areer.
Ala n Emmet’s 1977 Independent Project,
Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Changing
of a Land scape was published by the GSD’s
Landscape Architecture School, providing
her with the credential s to create historic
landscape reports for SPNEA (Historic
New Engla nd) as well as the National Trust,
all the while writing articles about gardens.
Her 1996 book, So Fine A Prospect, wa s
published by The University Press of New
England, a nd is a substantial, well-re searched
contribution to Ne w England’s garden and
design heritage.
Sally Naish ’s 2009 Independent Project
began with a charrette for all the constituents
of MAB Community Services in Brookline.
She spent the rest of the year developing a
Master Plan, a process nece ssitating many
meetings and incrementa l decision s. Her IP
earned her a certificate in Landscape Design,
and her work for MAB continues on a
consu lting basis.
students in Richa rd churchill ’s field botany of NE cl ass, maine
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